Compare and Despair

To whom do you compare yourself?  

Your neighbor? Your siblings? Who you were 10 years ago? The vision of who you thought you’d be today that you formulated 10 years ago?

Who would you be today if you were unable to compare yourself with anyone else? Please don’t skip over this; it’s not a rhetorical question. If you were unable to compare yourself with anyone else, how would your day have been different than it was today?

How would your life be different?

Imagine that you wake up tomorrow and think: How strange that Anna compares herself to Rachel. Anna believes that Rachel has it all together and when Anna compares herself to that image she feels badly about herself.  Anna isn’t around when Rachel locks herself in the bathroom and cries, or loses her temper with her kids.

How strange that Pete feels badly about himself when he looks at Terry. Pete believes he should be more like Terry. He doesn’t know the depth of insecurity Terry feels when he compares himself to Paul.

Imagine that you made up a completely arbitrary rule years ago. Maybe something like, “I should have retirement savings by the time I’m 60”, or “I should be married with kids” or “I should like spending time with my family”.

There was no real basis in reality for this rule. You just made it up ad spent a long time making it feel true.

Then you checked your life against that rule and decided that you weren’t good enough if there was a mismatch.

Imagine that you wake up tomorrow and think that holding yourself to arbitrary rules that you created just doesn’t serve you in any positive way.

Imagine that you wake up tomorrow believing that to compare yourself to anyone else is completely illogical…you suddenly believe that it isn’t an apples to apples comparison so it makes no sense at all to even go there.

Imagine that.